In this post, I wanna discuss one of my favorite things - PARTIES! You know, I'm a party pro and I wonder how I haven't come up with this genius idea yet.
But it's not gonna be just how I like to party, but about my party experience around the world (thanks to the US trips, I can call it 'around'). Of course, I can tell you only how native Russians party, and that's gonna be the fullest part. What about other countries that I'll touch (the USA, of course, Japan, China, and just some sentences about what else I know), so I'll tell you my personal experience only as a tourist/traveller and, what is also important, an underage tourist/traveller (sound illigal).
So let's start with my Motherland Russia. What I'll write is a pretty common thing, so you can believe me. Russians are good at partying at home. The most problematic thing is neighbors, and you may understand, neighbors are the problem everywhere. Adults like to gather if there's a serious celebration such as a birthday party, a wedding or an anniversary and so on. Teenagers put up a home party if parents go out somewhere for a weekend. Until you're in mid-twenties you drink just to get drunk, you see. Russians don't usually organize any themed parties. We like to dress nicely, but we don't put on anything funny as long as it's not Halloween and you're not going to the bar. Bars are a different story.
Almost all the bars and nightclubs are guided by the Western culture, so themed parties there are the thing. Halloween, New Year, International Women's Day, the Day of Russia - venues organize various events and promotions to get attention and attract folks. Once I went to a bar on the International Women's Day and received a free cocktail - it was plain champagne with grenadine, but man, it was free of charge! Plus, one of the positive things about the bars in Russia is that many of them are open till 4 am or so (at the weekend - for sure); moreover, there are bars that work 24/7. Isn't it a partying heaven?
Usually, you can't get into a bar if you're underage, but one always knows some places. Of course, if you're unlucky to look like 14 when you're 22, you might be asked your passport. But if you're a 17 years old guy who's taller than the President and has some awesome facial hair, you'll be welcomed. By the way, the Russian full age is 18. But as I said, the Western culture has influenced, and some venues, especially high-class ones, don't allow people under 21. It works with buying alcohol as well: you may buy beer and wine legally when you're 18, but spirits like rum, whiskey and tequila are forbidden unless you're 21 and over. Well, technically. Because I easily buy them in the shops and order in the bars. Usually, I'm not asked for my passport, but only the cashier told me to show my document when I was buying vodka. So I showed him, and everything was alright though vodka is like 40%, ok? Yeah yeah, make those Russia-vodka-bears jokes.
Also, Russians like to hang out in the country. You form a gang with a poor driver who can't drink while others party hard. Then you go to a lake, or a river, or a beach. The picnic can last for one day only or for the whole weekend or even longer.
So, Russia. Favorite party beverage: vodka, obvi. I mean, there are people who don't drink vodka, so they may drink wine, cognac, whiskey - everything the world can offer, even non-alcoholic stuff. Can you believe it? There are Russian people who don't drink alcohol! But it ain't no proper Russian party if there ain't no vodka.
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| You see, putting up a house party, young people don't usually care about the fancy of the glasses and other dishes |
In 2013, my friends and I faced such a thing as a hotel party. Every weekend a very lively party was put up near the swimming pool in the hotel where we lived after Las Vegas trip. Parties started pretty early, at like 4 pm or something, because I remember we wanted to shoot some videos near the swimming pool for our task but couldn't get there because we were underage. Like they would've let us in only if we were adults! Probably, the parties were organized by the hotel. Once we returned from an excursion and on entering the hotel we couldn't breathe properly, our eyes got irritated, so we quickly went up to our rooms. As far as I understood, someone had pulverized some pepper spray - for fun?? Not sure, because another day my friend Christina and I went down to the vending machines for some snacks, and some partying men tried to pick us up inviting us to join them at the party. So maybe it was a woman defending herself who had dispersed the spray that day?
Still, we had a chance to have a pool party at the end of our American vacation. It was our last full day before the departure day, and it was Christina's birthday as well. All guys wanted to swim a bit after lunch, but we saw another party was being prepared, and we thought we wouldn't be allowed to the swimming pool. But just the reverse they let us swim and, moreover, the DJ had been already there, so he turned on some cool music shouting "RUSSIANS IN DA HOUSE!!", and the organizers threw us some huge air toys (I don't know their proper names). We had our best time indeed!
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| Try to spot me |
American favorite party beverage: beer. Of course, there are wine and whiskey, and vodka, too, but the beer is the thing. I tasted some Mexican beer, but it was total crap for me. Also, I drank some (read: a lot of) wine, both red and white, and it worked well. Very well.
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| An example of the room in the hostel where we could chill out when the official party stopped |
Also, we had to stop loud hostel parties by the midnight, because the neighbors could complain and call the police; so we hid in the rooms with low music and slowed down activity.
Once I chanced to get into a bar near my hostel. Guys took me there to dance though we all wondered if I'd be asked for my ID. Fortunately, we walked in freely and danced till guys decided to change the place. The bar was really tiny; I didn't notice much difference from the Russian bars I'd been to.
The United States of AMURICA!! Fav beverage: I'd say beer but anything you can afford will do. But can you imagine a proper American party without a beer pong?
The main people partying in Japan are men. It may sound anti-feministic but that's how it is as far as I know. I'm sure, young people party at the same level, both guys and girls. But talking about older ones, I know that men are most likely to hang out in big companies without their women in the evening. Even when I went to Japan in 2013 to work, firstly, we didn't have any woman in our Japanese crew, and when we had something like farewell parties, there were no women either. But I think, it's not a question about partying habits, is it? But I'm not about to make monsters out of the Japanese; they are such a nice polite nation!
The Japanese are no strangers to family parties. They like to go out with the whole family, have outside activities together and eat out somewhere. They don't need special occasions for that , and I think it's nice and cute.
What about me, so there was no problem for me (16 then) and my mate to buy some alcoholic bevarage in Japan as I wasn't asked my age 'cause I was a Westener, I guess. So, if you go to Wakkanai one day, I know where to buy a very decent mojito.
Let's sum up what I have for Japan. I'd say that the Japanese stick to their traditional sake, but I must admit their love their local beer as well.
When I think of China and alcohol, my first thought is Chinese beer!! Back in 2012 when my choir and I went to this country, the first bevarage we were served for dinner was beer. Only after some of us would ask for water or juice. And - oh man! - we drank so much Chinese beer! It even led me to a heavily sore throat and my first boyfriend; none of those was a good experience. So my experience of Chinese parties are all from that trip. Firstly, we experienced the Chinese hospitality during dinners with limitless beer (we even stole some bottles to our hotel). Then we put up kinda 'house parties' in our rooms in the hotel with that beer and anything we could buy at the hotel from the pineapple beer to already mixed whiskey and cola. Moreover, some of the choir participants including me, of course, once went to a local night club catering for the Russians. It was much fun, very drunk though. Sometimes I recollect some fragments from that night and am like "Why the hell did I do that?" - I mean, danced to the very odd tunes. Once again, there wasn't any troubles buying alcohol in China, and it was great.
I don't think I can be any positive about what people of China prefer, so let's stop at beer as their favorite drink. It seems like beer rule the world!
So guys, that's what I have in my mind for one of my favorite subject - PARTIES! Maybe I could have written even more if the information weren't drunk away.
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